The 2015 movie City of Gold follows Jonathan Gold, food writer and critic, through LA as he eats at food trucks, family places in out-of-the way mini-malls, and sometimes high-end restaurants. Gold says he and his car, a truck the size of a small tank, are one entity. So there he is, driving around LA, getting out for tacos and for any number of dishes which I don’t even know the names of, from a million cuisines that immigrants bring to the city. To my mind the film is about discovery and about love, two of the best things of all.
The film could almost make me want to move to LA and just eat my way through the city, as Gold does. It reminds me of some of my summer excursions in the Italian mountains, where we were eating in the kind of place that is called “circolo,” often run just by a single woman or by a family, where the workers who earn a hard living in alpine jobs—in forests and marble caves and so on—get their lunch. The places Gold goes to are like this, entirely out of the way of any Michelin guide or old-style food critic. To eat there is to love the place and to want to get to know its people. And then it comes also with the most delicious experiences. Must see, five stars. *****